Conservative MP Dechert stumbles
The knock-down 41st Parliament is back in session; only for a moment is there pause to reflect on the unhappy saga of “Love Bob” Dechert. He is the Mississauga MP made into a Punch and Judy figure over leaks of secret emails to a lady friend named Shi Rong. Dechert became a caricature: the […]
Harper picks his new PMO director of communications
Columnist Angelo Persichilli, late of The Hill Times, has complained there are too many French people in Parliament. Bilingualism is a waste of money, he added, and French translations are “annoying.” He wrote that French-speaking reporters may not be trustworthy and English ones are even worse: lazy, shallow “animals.” Persichilli last week started work […]
Former Senator Lavigne’s conviction ‘triumph’ for Canadian democracy
"Why me?" cried ex-senator Raymond Lavigne, sentenced to jail for fraud this summer; "I don't deserve this." Lavigne showed no remorse and uttered no apology. He scorned his tormentors. "They" had attacked him, he said, pained his family, "assassinated me in the media." The judge was coldly efficient. "No one is above the law," he […]
Outside of politics, Layton was a ‘fish in water,’ it taught him a lot
It was scarcely sunrise in Vancouver and Canada’s Olympic swim coach Tom Johnson was remembering the last time he spoke with Jack Layton. “It was two months ago; he sent me photos of when we were nine years old,” Johnson said. The collection of snapshots showed the boys poolside in Hudson, Que. “We were little […]
Any finance minister that brings in a flat tax would be tarred and feathered
Flat taxers, the eccentric fringe of Canadian politics, took a heavy blow this past week when one of the richest men on earth endorsed graduated income tax. Rational people settled this argument a century ago. Amazingly the debate lingers in government circles. Tycoon Warren Buffett wrote in a New York Times commentary that, at 17 […]
License plates most enduring political statement Canadians have
Spotted: 11 different license plates in one parking lot. There were 11 scripted mottos contrived by legislatures to inspire the people. The results were uneven, from banal (“Yours To Discover”—Ontario) to poetic (“Land Of Living Skies”—Saskatchewan). Each was stamped in aluminum plate that’ll survive a century in landfill. License plates may be the most enduring […]
Journalism, like baseball, is hard: hours are terrible hours, no security, and every error recorded
Journalism, like baseball, is hard—terrible hours, no security, with every error recorded. So it was a minor summer sensation when a rookie journalist quit the field in a very public way after expressing disgust over “a growing gap between the reporter I played on TV and the person I really am,” he wrote. The author […]
Economic forecasts are wildly unreliable, I have a match box to prove it
When the Peace Tower clock strikes midnight March 31, 2015 the federal budget will be balanced. Finance Minister Jim Flaherty swears it will be so. Will it? Economic forecasts are wildly unreliable. I have a match box to prove it. Tucked inside is the shrewdest investment I ever made—a one ounce wafer of gold. I […]
If Canada’s so conservative, why do so few Canadians vote Conservative? Cue awkward silence
The Prime Minister seated himself under the hot TV lights. With the camera rolling, he contemplated the future. “I’ve often thought that 10 years is the right time to be in a job,” he said. “But we’ll see.” That was Paul Martin speaking on Dec. 19, 2003. He had been Prime Minister less than a […]
Opinion: Canada’s generally a nice, quiet place
It’s a nightmare for PMO media managers. This Thursday will see the release of new crime statistics that’ll reveal—brace yourself—Canada is generally a nice, quiet place. Federal statisticians have been documenting a decline in crime rates for a generation. Good news, yes? But for a government bent on a multi-million-dollar crime crackdown, the annual release […]
